Only hires can help fight the fires of youth unemployment

Labour devalued degrees by insisting half of school leavers had one. The
Coalition risks the same with apprenticeships.

The answer to youth unemployment is youth employment. Even if apprentices were guaranteed a job, which they're not, enough employment isn't being generated to successfully round off this sudden burst in apprenticeships.

Business Secretary Vince Cable will today announce another push to get more young people into apprenticeships on the same day that youth unemployment is forecast to hit 1m.

Central to Cable's initiative will be funds for colleges involved in the country's apprenticeship scheme to teach basic maths and English.

Remedial work, in other words. However important that work is, apprenticeships are not a substitute for school. Neither are they glorified training courses. They build on school qualifications already gained, teaching more specific skills in the work place combined with the learning of further technical knowledge in college classrooms.

The fact there are now "apprenticeships" in learning and well being or music marketing risks the concept being used to massage dole queues rather than channelling promising school leavers into careers they may not have otherwise considered.

The answer to youth unemployment is youth employment. Even if apprentices were guaranteed a job, which they're not, enough employment isn't being generated to successfully round off this sudden burst in apprenticeships. That requires the cost of job creation (tax and red tape) to fall and a far more business-friendly environment to prevail -something which still makes Cable visibly queasy. But you can't have jobs without giving businesses, big and small, a break.